Actors union, studios reach new TV labor deal

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The smaller of Hollywood's two
performers unions reached a tentative deal with studios on
Wednesday for a new prime-time TV contract, setting the stage
for the more militant Screen Actors Guild to renew labor talks
with producers.

The deal between the major studios and the 70,000-member
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or AFTRA,
capped 17 days of negotiations stretching back to May 7, a day
after separate talks with SAG, which represents 120,000 actors,
hit a stalemate.

The contracts for both unions expire June 30, and Hollywood
has been nervous that the actors might go on strike, paralyzing
the entertainment industry much as a 100-day walkout by
screenwriters did earlier this year.

The industry already is in de facto strike mode, with
studios starting to stockpile TV episodes and unwilling to
launch work on movies that could be affected by a walkout.

But the tentative accord announced between AFTRA and the
studios' bargaining agent, the Alliance of Motion Picture and
Television Producers, raised hopes again that labor peace in
the world's entertainment capital might yet be preserved.

SAG has not sought the authorization of its members to call
for a work stoppage.

Highlights of the settlement outlined by AFTRA included
provisions it said would preserve performers' consent for the
use of their TV clips as online entertainment -- an issue that
had emerged as a major stumbling block for both actors unions.

However, AFTRA said the exact "mechanism" by which actors
would give or withhold consent for existing TV content remains
to be ironed out by the two sides, presumably in future talks.
Consent for Internet play of excerpts of future TV shows would
be bargained "at the time of original employment."
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